Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Birding Leesville Pond-Tuesday

I did a little early morning birding this past Tuesday in hopes of getting the reported American Wigeon's as well as the lone female Northern Pintail. I've been having some major insomnia lately and find that I'm waking up every hour or so and briefly listening for the Eastern Screech-Owl (no luck), and then tossing and turning trying to get back to sleep. I'd wake up again at 4:00AM and toss and turn until 4:45 when I got up and decided to hit Leesville Pond in Worcester since I was was wide awake anyways.

I'd get there at about 6:10 or so and realize it was still very dark and I'd question my sanity somewhat because who in their right minds go to cemeteries in the dark of night, but knew dawn would break soon so I just waited and listened.

I couldn't see much at that time, but could hear the Mallards in their roosting spot hollering away as well as some Wood Ducks who were coming from a different area. Since picture taking was useless, I decided to get some video. Yes, I'm all over the place but I was trying to see if my camera could pick up any of the birds but it was still too dark out.

Anyway, it would soon be light enough to see what I was doing, but not light enough for decent pictures but decided to take them anyways. It wouldn't take me long to find the American Wigeon's who preferred to be by themselves and away from the other ducks, but at one point they seemed to tolerate a couple of Green-winged Teal who were nearby.

It would take me a while to find the Northern Pintail but once I did I was able to get a really good look at her as she hung out with the Mallards. Yes, the picture is lousy, but I was glad I could take one considering how challenging it's been lately. She is to the right and behind the drake Mallard. Despite the poor picture quality, you can still see her dark gray bill, distinctive long, slender neck (especially compared to the Mallards), and the shape of her tail and how it almost curves upwards and the lighter edges at the tip of it which appear to have gotten magnified somewhat by my full zoom camera settings.

Both the Wigeon's, Pintail and Green-winged Teal were all in the same general area and I was able to find a great spot with a full view with a fence to provide a bird blind of sorts so I spent a while here before going to check for sparrows. It would be really funny to watch her hanging out with the Mallards and seeing them accept her as one of the gang. I do wonder why she's by herself though and not with her own kind.

After that I checked on the Sparrows and there would be a ton of them, including quite a few Song Sparrows and quite a few Savannah Sparrows. The Savannah Sparrows all appeared to be juveniles as they couldn't get the song right, which was fun to watch. I'd also get my FOS White-throated Sparrow who would allow me a quick glance before it flew deeper into the brush pile.

The perfect cure for a bad case of insomnia, but won't be able to do much pre work birding considering how late the suns starting to rise now.

I went to Broad Meadow Brook this past Sunday to get some fresh air and see what was around. I'd see a few birds including a very cooperative Common Yellowthroat, some Blackpolls and all of the other regulars and a really good look at an Eastern Phoebe, who was cooperative enough for a half decent picture.

I'd see some commotion coming from some brush and decide to pish out whoever it was. The bird was easily pishable and flew so close to me I could hear it's wing beats.

And this is who would be staring at me. This very curious juvenile Song Sparrow.

The handsome little guy would even be kind enough to pose for me which was a welcome change. I'd realize he was a juve as soon as he started to break out into song as he couldn't get neither his song A nor song B correct as you will see in the video below. Funny at the end to hear him rambling on like he did.